Because I Like You
by LittleSixx
Summary: Blaise falls in love with Draco Malfoy, one year at a time. (A series of vignettes about how Draco and Blaise get their happy ending.)


**Blaise is seven when he meets Draco for the first time.** He went to Malfoy Manor for what his mother called a "playdate." Draco is the very opposite of what Blaise sees in the mirror. His hair is so light it is practically white and his eyes are grey, every part of him devoid of colour. He's in a nice sweater, the fabric similar to what Blaise is wearing. There are other children there too, and Blaise catches their names (Crabbe, Goyle, Pansy, Greengrass) but quickly forgets them. They don't matter like the boy standing in front of him, so bright that light reflects off him like freshly-polished glass.

Draco scans through the kids like he's ordering off a menu. Blaise is off in a corner alone as his mother chats up Lucius Malfoy and Peter Parkinson. He doesn't like crowds or unfamiliar places. Draco walks over to Blaise with his head held high, trying too hard to project that he's in control. Blaise can't help but smile at the attempt because this boy seems so … _dramatic_. Yet, he is also the most interesting person Blaise has ever seen. Draco steps in front of him and offers Blaise his hand. Blaise accepts and Draco says,

"I like you."

 **Blaise is eleven the next time he sees Draco.** They are on the Hogwarts Express and Blaise is in the compartment across the aisle. No one seems to want to sit with him, and that is fine. Preferred, actually, but he cannot help the way his eyes meander to the window to look at the striking boy across the way. Draco catches him once. Neither of them smile, Blaise insisting to himself he is unashamed and unconcerned. He quickly turns his attention back to his book, but his heart is doing an unfamiliar little flutter thing.

He is the last to be called for Sorting. (Curse of the Z, you see.) The Sorting Hat seems perplexed and asks Blaise where he wants to be. Blaise always thought he would be in Ravenclaw. His mother was a Slytherin, but Ravenclaw is for smart and determined people. Ravenclaw sounds like it would suit Blaise best by leaving him to his books and his quiet. There was this nagging feeling, though, at the back of his mind. Professor McGonagall said your House is like your family. There is only one person in the whole of the Great Hall he wants to know better. When the Sorting Hat shouts "Slytherin!" Draco Malfoy catches Blaise's eye for the slightest moment and smiles. Blaise walks over to him and asks,

"May I sit here?"

 **Blaise is twelve when he realizes he likes Draco.** It's a strange feeling, but not a wholly unpleasant one. It happens when Draco comes back from Quidditch practice, his hair still dripping wet from a shower. He walks through the common room door with his robes draped across one arm, wearing nothing but trousers, tank top, and those fingerless Quidditch gloves that make him look kind of rebellious. He is followed by Flint and the rest of the team, but Blaise's eyes linger on Draco unlike how he scans over the rest of them. He starts to shake when Draco meets his gaze, worried he has been too obvious. To compensate, Draco is too oblivious.

Draco says something funny a few months later, and Blaise laughs. The entire common room stops and stares; Draco raises an eyebrow. It was a joke about a pureblood, half-blood, and Mudblood walking into a pub. It is funny but it crosses Blaise's mind that no one has heard him laugh before. He doesn't say much, keeps his head down and his nose out of everyone else's business just as his mother taught him. It seems that Draco is dragging more out of Blaise than he knew he had within himself. The corner of Draco's mouth twitched upward in a smile.

"Think it's funny, do you?"

 **Blaise is thirteen the first time he sees Draco scared.** It is third year and some horse-chicken abomination attacks Draco because he calls it ugly. (It is ugly!) While many people, most of them Gryffindors, would insist that Draco was being melodramatic … Draco is frightened. Blaise knows how Draco looks when he is acting. Blaise knows what Draco does when things do not go his way. Draco's shouts are noises of genuine fear and Blaise grips Pansy's sleeve as she shouts the curse words that seem to get stuck in his throat.

He knows Draco is adversely affected by Dementors. Making fun of Harry Potter was a way to distract everyone from his own issues with them. Blaise never asks Draco what unhappy memory has him shaking any time they leave the castle. What fear Dementors seize on that causes Draco to scream in night terrors when one hovers near their dormitory window. Blaise knows him well enough to guess. Blaise knows him well enough to see that only his father's disappointment can cause that much distress. Blaise never asks about it, just sits at the foot of Draco's bed handing him chocolate until he stops shaking. Draco whispers,

"Thanks for being here."

 **Blaise is fifteen the first time Draco makes him jealous.** It is fourth year and Draco will not shut up about Harry Potter. Blaise's birthday in November is the one time he allows the House to pay him much attention. He blows out the candles on his cake in the common room, while Draco huddles with Crabbe and Goyle in high-backed chairs by the fireplace. Blaise can make out "Potter" and "champion" but tunes out the rest. If Draco honestly believes Potter put his own name in the goblet, he is an idiot. Harry Potter hates attention and anyone who looks closely enough can see that. Draco is simply too self-absorbed to believe anyone could think like that. In reality, Blaise is just bitter that Draco forgot to wish him a happy birthday.

Draco takes Pansy Parkinson to the Yule Ball and, okay, Blaise knew Draco wouldn't ask him. It is the way Pansy fawns over Draco, clinging to his arm and kissing his cheek that sends Blaise to the green side of envy. Fortunately, Daphne Greengrass is able to commiserate with him, her position remarkably similar to his own. They spend most of the Yule Ball gazing wistfully at Draco and Parvati. It is kind of pathetic and Blaise hates himself for it. He realizes Draco doesn't like him the way he wants, but he does not want to give up on the idea of Draco, either. He asks Daphne for her advice and she sighs.

"When I figure out how to make it hurt less, I'll let you know."

 **Blaise is sixteen the first time Draco kisses him.** Fifth year started off well for Draco and pretty shitty for Blaise. The school year prior, he and Lee Jordan had study-dates decidedly not of an academic nature. Jordan dumps him when they arrive back at Hogwarts, as much as one can be dumped in a relationship confined to dark classrooms and late nights in the Gryffindor common room. Blaise sulks as Draco rises to what he calls "power" through being Prefect and head of the Inquisitorial Squad. In reality, he just becomes unbearable and, if possible, even more of a melodramatic prat.

But Merlin, Blaise still adores him. When Lord Malfoy gets stripped of his wand and sent to Azkaban, it's Blaise who talks Draco out of cursing Harry Potter. As those angry shouts turn to sobs of despair, it's Blaise who holds him through it all, preventing Draco from caving in on himself. When Draco suddenly pins Blaise to his bed and kisses him, it is nothing like Blaise wanted. He can feel Draco's tears on his face and Draco's uneven breathing against his chest. Blaise pushes him away and, before Draco can feel dejected, pulls him into a tight hug.

"When I figure out how to make it hurt less, I'll let you know."

 **Blaise is seventeen when he realizes something is wrong with Draco.** Everything changed over the summer. Draco pulls up his left sleeve to reveal a Dark Mark which is impressive. To convince the most powerful wizard in the world to allow a child into his inner circle … Well, that was just like Draco Malfoy. He says he has a mission but refuses to give details. That is fine, Blaise would rather not know. He doesn't like Mudbloods, believes the world would be better off without that Granger girl in it, but doesn't care one way or another about the war. He chooses to bask in the luxury of indifference.

It's not the dark circles beneath Draco's eyes that do Blaise in. Draco ditches class every-other day and Professor Snape is covering for him. Draco loses so much weight that his robes hang off him like Crabbe's or Goyle's would. Blaise does not press the matter until Potter rips Draco's chest open. A curse like that—Blaise would kill Harry for it, except he wants Voldemort dead even more for making Draco like this. Blaise was the only one in the hospital wing when Draco woke up. Blaise props him up on pillows, brings him water, and copies his own homework for Draco to turn in later. It's what a good friend does, right? Because they are friends and friends do these sorts of things. Just friends. Nothing more. Nothing more until Draco manages to croak out,

"Thanks for being here."

 **Blaise decides to leave Draco at age eighteen.** Slytherin students are escorted out before the final battle and Blaise wants to stay. Draco is here, Draco is about to take part in a battle and … and … Blaise cannot finish the thought. The notion of the world without Draco Malfoy in it was an impossibility. But in the end, Blaise is Italian. His father was British, sure, but Italy is his home and he has no loyalty to either side of this war. He leaves Hogwarts and Apparates to his mother's home in Modena, trusting that Draco's willpower is enough to keep him alive.

He Floos to Malfoy Manor the following morning because he cannot take not knowing. He finds Draco in the drawing room, soot-stained, blood-stained, and _alive._ Blaise runs to him and wraps him in a tight hug before he can get his bearings. Draco cards his fingers through Blaise's hair and laughs. It's like he has nothing else, no emotion, and he can't think of anything else to do. Blaise just sighs heavily and tucks Draco's head beneath his chin. _Thank you, God, for keeping him alive. Merlin on high, I don't know what I would've done …_ But Draco keeps laughing. Blaise understands; emotional support has always been his role. He holds Draco when Draco cannot keep himself up any longer. When there's nothing for Draco to do but laugh at the absurdity of his life, Blaise has to join in. He says he will never leave Draco again and the laughter keeps bubbling up uncontrollably out of Draco's mouth. Blaise laughs at the ridiculousness of it all.

"Think it's funny, do you?"

 **Blaise takes Draco out on their first date when he is twenty.** They go to a nice restaurant in Italy where no one knows about the pale boy with the white-blond hair. Blaise insisted they celebrate the Wizengamot granting Draco clemency for his crimes. Blaise is studying wizarding law in case someone tries to jail Draco again. It could happen, no one knows what the future may hold. They are still rebuilding, and Blaise thinks it's time Draco get on with it as well. So they have a lovely dinner where they talk around the questions they are each afraid to ask out loud. _What happens after this? What does this make us?_

Blaise's mother lives with husband #8, so the house in Modena is now his alone. Their arrival is awkward and Blaise shakes with anxiety because he hopes the night ends a certain way ... but does not know if Draco has the same notion. He grabs Firewhisky from the liquor cabinet and pours himself three fingers. Two for Draco, who is still a little lightweight from the stress of the Wizengamot trial. Blaise hands Draco the glass and sits in one of the large chairs by the fireplace. He spreads his legs wide and sighs contentedly as the fire warms him up, loosening his hold on the glass and Blaise suddenly feels very relaxed. Draco downs his drink in one go and suggestively eyes the space between Blaise's legs. He lowers himself to hover over Blaise so their noses are almost touching and asks,

"May I sit here?"

 **Blaise accepts Draco's marriage proposal when he's twenty-five.** He is a practicing attorney in Britain and Italy, living full-time in Malfoy Manor. He moved in shortly after Lucius died three years earlier. Blaise was a member of the team that reinstated the death penalty for Fenrir Greyback, and wizarding society cannot figure out what to make of "the silent lawyer." The man whose boyfriend bears the Mark. The man who only speaks when words are necessary, but can just as easily kill you with a look. _A stunner,_ they call him. Blaise is accustomed to being talked about, but dating a Malfoy and prosecuting one of the most ruthless Death Eaters was a level of notoriety he hadn't quite prepared for.

Draco proposes on a whim. "I've known enough people in my life to know that you matter more than anyone else ever could. I've seen war, I've been tortured, and Merlin knows that all I want now is a family. I can't imagine there is anyone better for me than you. I cannot remember a time when I needed you and you weren't there for me. I want to be that for you for the rest of our lives, so, Blaise Zabini, will you marry me?" Those grey eyes are wide-open and honest, but Draco also looks staggeringly vulnerable down on one knee. Blaise nods, he smiles, and pulls Draco up into an excited, teeth-clacking kiss. When Draco asks why Blaise is saying yes, Blaise smiles and says,

"Because I like you."


End file.
